Memorial Holiday Weekend OK,Somebody's got to say it:

azdiva

Guest
Busy... Just suppose that this was twenty years ago, Open Border and Good Neighbor Policy, no checkpoints, no regards to Mexico
Safety or Crime, No Mexico Insurance, No passport or Border Cards needed, No Problems. Everybody Welcome with no regards and everyone
returning have a good trip"how much shrimp to declare" "Have a Good Time?" How many more Thousands would be there. I bet this would
make Santa Semana look tame in comparison. Can you imagine if over one Hundred Thousand Gringos Showed up. I think only a tenth of the
tourists from Phoenix and Tucson go to RP anymore compared to past holiday events. Come on, Phoenix alone can attract over 100,000
on certain events. I cannot imagine that RP could support over 200,000 tourists on a weekend. However if it wasn't for the barriers,
psychological or physical preventing Zonies from visiting... the crowds now are barely managable. Just my two cents.
 

playaperro

El Pirata
I don't remember the count for Semana, but this past weekend was 35k, maybe more since most people were there but on facebook! Lol
 
We were there for the Memorial Day Holiday. It was a great time and the weather couldn't have been better.
Except for a kid in our party that got hit by a stingray,(he survived just fine) the whole weekend was a blast.
 

dry heat

Pigeon coup coordinator
semana santa #'s could approach 100k. a busy US holiday weekend (memorial weekend, 4th of july, labor day weekend or an overlapping spring break with a multiple schools out) could see numbers in the 50k-75k range.
 
Sorry But:
Even in the crazy days of 1987-1998, Sandy beach had 3K people camping on it. JJ's and the Reef had 600-1000 people in them, Mirador was packed.

You had to walk 3-4 blocks to which ever bar you went to. Big weekends took 3-5 hours to cross into the USA if you left after 9AM.
without all the Passport and Homeland Security questions happening now. (One year it was 8 hours)

But these times were tame compared to Semana Santa of the past 10 years.
You just have to plan around the crowds and leave earlier or stay until the next day to avoid the delays.
I have stopped being in RP during Semana Santa week, just not worth the hassle.

I have stopped being a weekend warrior and now only go when I can stay 4-10 days. I am fortunate to be able to average 35-40 days per year.
 

ben21

Guest
I agree that we're not quite back to the glory days, but things definitely are picking up.

Case in point: I cannot find a 2 bedroom condo to rent for June 7-10 anywhere on sandy beach for Circus Mexicus. Even Penasco Del Sol is asking $150/night for a hotel room. 2 years ago for this event I could have my pick of condos or stay at the hotel for $80/night. It's going to be slow, but eventually we'll get back to where it was. But then again, do we want it to be that crowded?
 
I prefer it to be semi busy where businesses can stay open and prosper. Where prices are still decent. Rentals $100-160 per night and beers under $2.50.
RP will probably get back to the boom and bust cycles of the past. That is why I'm looking to visit locales to the south where things are more stable and priced
moderately.
 

mondone

Whitecaps
Busy... Just suppose that this was twenty years ago, Open Border and Good Neighbor Policy, no checkpoints, no regards to Mexico
Safety or Crime, No Mexico Insurance, No passport or Border Cards needed, No Problems. Everybody Welcome with no regards and everyone
returning have a good trip"how much shrimp to declare" "Have a Good Time?" How many more Thousands would be there. I bet this would
make Santa Semana look tame in comparison. Can you imagine if over one Hundred Thousand Gringos Showed up. I think only a tenth of the
tourists from Phoenix and Tucson go to RP anymore compared to past holiday events. Come on, Phoenix alone can attract over 100,000
on certain events. I cannot imagine that RP could support over 200,000 tourists on a weekend. However if it wasn't for the barriers,
psychological or physical preventing Zonies from visiting... the crowds now are barely managable. Just my two cents.
That's OK, AZ media doing everything it can again to discourage the tourists- Take precautions to ensure safe travel in Mexico - Phoenix News - KTAR.com
 

playaperro

El Pirata
semana santa #'s could approach 100k. a busy US holiday weekend (memorial weekend, 4th of july, labor day weekend or an overlapping spring break with a multiple schools out) could see numbers in the 50k-75k range.
Do you have any article or something to back those numbers up? I do believe you Ben, but for others that just don't have the inside track they would seem kind of high, meanwhile the numbers are really low on a normal weekend.
 

dry heat

Pigeon coup coordinator
I'm not Ben as others know here.
I will have to look for the data, I believe I was told this info from the tourist desk at one time. I will have to find the data. Someone like Russ or Rosy may have this info already.
 

dry heat

Pigeon coup coordinator
when the new mayors office took over, the mayor and his staff met with some business leaders in an informal setting. I also believe they met with the various resort HOA representatives. One of the notes I have is in regards to the number of people in penasco during 'heavy' weekends. they mentioned that capacity can hit near 100k during the semana santa weekend and 50-75k during a busy US holiday. I'm sorry I don't have more specific data than that, I don't know how accurate the count is other than what that office told some of us. I think those numbers sound about right?
 
The economic impact numbers I read 2-3 years ago in Numero Uno were,
Typical weekend during year excluding US holidays was 5-15K
Major US holidays 25-40K
Semana Santa 60-75K.

Since this was during the bottom of the recession the numbers should be 20-30% higher now.
We won't know until we get through the rest of the year to see if the larger crowds hold up and that it is really
better going forward. As the US economy strenghtens RP will do as well from the spillover.

I know someone who works for a major US bank, and said this is their best year since 2007.
Encouraging
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
The economic impact numbers I read 2-3 years ago in Numero Uno were,
Typical weekend during year excluding US holidays was 5-15K
Major US holidays 25-40K
Semana Santa 60-75K.

Since this was during the bottom of the recession the numbers should be 20-30% higher now.
We won't know until we get through the rest of the year to see if the larger crowds hold up and that it is really
better going forward. As the US economy strenghtens RP will do as well from the spillover.

I know someone who works for a major US bank, and said this is their best year since 2007.
Encouraging

That's garbage, with interest rates at 3% I bet it was their best year.
 
Agreed, at 0-3%, the Banks are raking in the $$ right now, just not not flowing down to the people bringing
in the business currently.
The non upper management bankers bonuses for the year, are still trying to recover back to pre 2007 levels.
But it is still better than in the past few years.
 
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